Advise on damage caused by tenants

Bf109

lynn09 wrote: »

Carpet has been there for about 10 + years (again tenants don't know that)and we would have been looking to replace it at some point anyway.
Carpet has been pulled away from wall and shredded!
Were thinking laminate as it might be a bit more hardwearing

So to get it right - Its a ten year old carpet, therefore probably at the end of its life anyway, which is borne out by the fact that you're going to rip it out anyway.

I'm always amazed that slumlord swine like you can just come and post about how you want to rip off your tenants, without any shame at all, on a site thats supposed to protect consumers.

I hope you lose lots of money.

EDIT - And the fact that you know this and admit to wanting to keep the age of the carpet secret from your tenant speaks volumes about the quality of your character, or lack thereof.

clutton_2

axminster carpet can have a 30 year shelf life ..............

£1 a sq yard carpet can last - .... oh ..... 18 months ??

Doozergirl

A ten year old carpet is still a ten year old carpet and it's going to look it - either outdated or aged.

Really it is unfair to charge them for something you were going to replace anyway - if you're thinking to renew it, then your tenant is living with it and I bet they're thinking it needs replacing too. You can't charge them before they move out. If you really feel that you have to (I would never do this) then the amount should be nominal. You're supposed to charge nominally, so if you consider 10% a year for wear and tear, then the carpet is worthless now.

Laminate is better in rental properties - I don't like the stuff for my own house at all but when we rented I much preferred it to the idea of other people's grubbiness living in the carpet. If the kids spilt something it could be wiped up and the cat would have no interest in scratching it - better for LL and tenant. Plus tenant can put down their own rugs etc and add their taste to the property instead of yours imposed. I have some half decent aqua stuff in my rental property, which I found going cheap, of course!

olly300

lynn09 wrote: »

We have a property that we rent out to tenants.
We recently went to do an inspection and found that their cats have caused damage to the living room carpet.
In the tenancy agreement it says that the house will need to be proffesionly cleaned on moving out, including cleaning of carpets.
We might replace the flooring to a laminate anyway, (but we have not said anything to the tenants)
Any ideas on how we should handle it.

Thanks

Talk to the tenant.

Strange idea this but you find when you talk to people you can deal honesty with the situation.

I would follow up the conversation with a note in writing.

I also wouldn't lie about the carpet age.

Not all people who rent are thick and have no knowledge even though some of the posts on this forum may indicate this. . It's quite easy for people to work out the rough age of the carpet and the quality of it. If the tenant doesn't know themselves they are likely to have a mother or older friend who does. Or even worse they could have a friend or relation in the carpet trade.

poppysarah

The tenants will be in here asking how to get their deposit back when the ancient old carpet is being charged to them. Be fair.

sooz

What quality was the carpet to start with?
As clutton said, carpets vary greatly in quality & life expectancy.
Although 10 years in a rental is fairly good going for any carpet
Why were you thinking about replacing it, was it already worn or damaged?

Lavendyr

And to add, according to the OFT the requirement for a rented property to be professionally cleaned on leaving is an unfair term. The property should be returned in the state in which it was provided according to the inventory. Even if the inventory states it was 'cleaned to a professional standard', you can still not require the tenants to actually hire someone to clean it. It must simply be returned in the state it was provided.

Link: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/unfair_contract_terms/oft356.pdf

"Excessive cleaning charges - as a matter of normal practice in short lets, reflecting the common law, tenants are expected to return the property in as good and clean a condition as it was when they received it, with fair wear and tear excepted. We therefore commonly object to terms that could be used to make the tenant pay for the property to be cleaned to a higher standard than it was in at the start of the tenancy, or that require cleaning regardless of whether or not this is necessary for the tenant to comply with their normal obligations with regard to the state of the property"

guppy

Doozergirl wrote: »

Really it is unfair to charge them for something you were going to replace anyway - if you're thinking to renew it, then your tenant is living with it and I bet they're thinking it needs replacing too. You can't charge them before they move out. If you really feel that you have to (I would never do this) then the amount should be nominal. You're supposed to charge nominally, so if you consider 10% a year for wear and tear, then the carpet is worthless now.

Not just unfair - unlawful!

pinkshoes

Carpets can easily last 20+ years if it's a good one, so if they've damaged a perfectly good carpet, then they should pay towards some of the damage, depending on how much longer it was expected to last.

However, you've just said yourself that you were planning on putting laminate down, suggesting that the carpet was at the end of its life, which would mean there's be no point charging the tenants if you'd planned on replacing it anyway, BEFORE seeing the damage.

stevetodd

tsstss7 wrote: »

Laminate is hideous and would certainly put me off a place. It's not all that hard wearing either - you could get alot longer life out of a decent quality carpet.

I first put laminate flooring into a rented property in 1994, it still looks almost new and very good, I doubt a carpets would look that good after 14 years in a rented property.